Columns

I was chided last year for not reminding readers in time about the approach of St. Nicholas Day. Not so this year. St. Nicholas is coming Dec. 6, so there is well more than a week to make plans to take part in a great pre-Christmas tradition. Just don’t forget to put out your shoe the evening before the big day.

If you go to Old Cliff Cemetery above Cannelton and enter the left gateway and then turn immediately to your left you will see two small tombstones. Upon close examination one can read the weathered inscription on the stones.

They state that M.D. Turrell and Moses Mason, from the New Hampshire Infantry are buried there. How did Union soldiers from New England wind up in a cemetery in southern Indiana? Ah, therein lies a tale.

It feels like we are solidly in another Indian Summer, which always reminds me of an old print my father had hanging in his office: two juxtaposed images of a young man and his grandfather around a small bonfire.

For communities across Southern Indiana, Thanksgiving is a time to come together and acknowledge all the blessings we have in our lives. For many, it is a day of food, family and in my house, some football or deer hunting. We must also remember that there are those in our area who are less fortunate, and this time of year presents an opportunity to give thanks by giving back.

Mike Pence hit the nail on the head. On Sept. 8, while speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, he declared that the spirit of 1980 was back and that Donald Trump would win the White House. While others jeered, Pence predicted that the same forces that powered the Reagan revolution – working-class voters, union members, evangelicals – would align behind Trump and create a winning coalition.

As the winter months and cold temperatures approach, this time serves as a reminder that some Hoosiers may be eligible for energy assistance through the Low Income Heating Assistance Program. Our state offers low-income households financial assistance to keep their utilities connected during the winter months through this program.

I grew up ankle-deep in hog manure. Well, I had boots on, but I got plenty of pig and cow poo on me and when I had to clean out the chicken house, I breathed in my share of dried chicken poo, too.

Other than obesity (which genes and my overactive appetite are to blame) I’m healthy and don’t have allergies or asthma. So are my siblings and as I’ve thought about it the past couple of weeks, so are most of the one-time farm kids I know.